Rasheed Araeen (born 1935 in Karachi, Pakistan) is an artist, activist, writer, editor and curator. In 1964, he moved to the United Kingdom from Pakistan, where he had initially trained as a civil engineer. Araeen is recognized as the father of
minimalist sculpture in 1960s Britain. His work in
performance,
photography,
painting, and sculpture throughout the 1970s to 1990s challenged Eurocentricsm within the British art establishment and championed the role of minority artists, especially those of Asia, African and Caribbean descent. In addition to his artistic practice, he took on activist roles with organisations such as the Black Panthers and Artists for Democracy, and founded the critical journals
Black Phoenix,
Third Text and
Third Text Asia. Araeen organised the seminal 1989 exhibition, “The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Post-War Britain”, which was held at Southbank Centre, London. Author of numerous essays and journals, he has written
Art Beyond Art: Ecoaesthetics—A Manifesto for the 21st Century (Third Text Publications, London, 2010) and the autobiographical
Making Myself Visible (Kala Press, London, 1984).
